I've talked a lot about my three really close friends from those years on Suffolk, but there were definitely others. In fact, I had a couple of really good friends from middle school who became almost as integral to my life as Chad, Jayesh, and Kerry. So, for this installment, we'll talk about two of them: Brock Rotkowski, and Andrew Mautz.
I met Brock at Portage North Middle School. He was the one exception to the odd rule of good friends living in my neighborhood; he resided down Oakland almost to Parkview on a street I've since forgotten the name of, but still currently sits kind of near the new Valley Family Church. There would eventually be others who didn't live near me, but we'll get to them another time. So Brock and I had a few things in common, such as our love of Transformers, MAD Magazines, and his then-recent fall under the warm, dark blanket of horror movies. But I think the one major thing that brought us together was skiing. Back then I had decided to take up downhill skiing. Our school offered a Ski Club and I decided to join, as did Brock. So, every Wednesday and every-other Friday we'd head to Bittersweet Ski Lodge and learn to schuss our way down the slopes without snapping a leg bones in the process.
Before I go on, I have to yank out the images in my head of just what Brock looked like... or at least what I remember. You see, I've only seen him once since I left Middle School and that was way back in like 1993. Anyway, he was a pale kid with fiery-red hair and freckles. Kinda short -well, shorter than me at the time- and just an all round cool kid. I think he had glasses, as did I (I first started wearing mine during the transition from Elementary to Middle School), if I can remember right. When I saw him years later, he might have had contacts and I seem to recall him having shot upward in height quite a bit, too. Anyway, he was a good friend for quite a number of years and was definitely one of the sadder ones when it came time for me to move away... but we'll get to that later.
Anyway, I remember sitting in the back of Mrs. Bunce's English class creating our own MAD Fold-Ins while she droned on about prepositions and dangling modifiers. It was fun and it killed the time. Oh, but don't get thinking I got bad grades in her class, oh no. If there was any subject I excelled at, it was English. Despite my disdain for organised classrooms and their epic doldrums, I was the king at poetry, book reports, and sentence creation and functions. But making Fold-Ins was just too much fun. Also we made Ninja Stars, we both had really nasty Asthma getting us out of gym class a lot, and we both had an affinity for really cool mechanical pencils. How's that for crummy grammar? HA!
So we skied a lot, we hung out outside of school, we even went camping together with his family once and the only piece I can remember is being on a big pontoon boat fishing and Brock getting something gross in his eye after we'd swum for a while. I don't know why just that piece of memory surfaced, but there you have it. Brock was a good dude, and sometimes I miss him just a bit...
Now we come to Andrew. And sadly, I remember very little about him. Maybe because we didn't hang out as much, or maybe I don't remember if he even went to Portage North with me. Now I know he was in my Scout Troop. but school... hm. My suspicions say he did, since he lived in my neighborhood, but I'll be damned if I can remember him being there at all. But then again, a lot of Middle School is a big blur and it's only now just starting to rearrange itself into cohesive memories. In fact, the more I think about it the more I want to say he was on the swim team with me. Yeah... I was on the swim team. We'll get more into that later, too.
The one thing I do remember is sleeping over at Andrew's house quite a bit during Summer break. I seem to remember him having an Atari 7800 and we'd stay up all hours playing that. I think he had a ton of LEGO, so I think we did a bunch of that, and maybe remote control cars, which eventually led to me getting one a few years later. Either way, I was there a bit. And Andrew taught me one really cool thing when sleeping over. And no, it's not that...
If you're a fan of fans, like I am, then this is really neat: First, take a sheet and put a few couch cushions or big pillows on one side just on the edge. Second, flip the sheet over the cushions so it covers them and all the rest of the sheet is now on the opposite side. Third, lay another series of cushions or something on the inside of the un-cushioned side, effectively making a weird igloo shape. Then, lay one last pillow (or whatever) on one end to seal it up, like a mini tent. Now, with the open end, spread it around a box fan (assuming you have one handy - this works best if you're already inside the tent getting ready to sleep) and drape the sheet over the back just enough so the suction from the fan blowing into the 'tent' keeps it 'sealed'. Turn on the fan: enjoy! If you do it right, it inflates the sheet like a weird balloon and you can sleep right inside! Yeah, it has to at least be on medium so it makes enough air to keep it blown up, but it's fun! Perhaps you should use the bathroom before attempting this, because once inside, it sucks getting out and then rearranging it all over again in the middle of the night.
Well, that was Brock and Andrew in a couple of nut shells. I wish I could remember more, but writing this one has definitely opened up a few previously sealed memory doors, so that's nice. I think next time I'll cover Mike Thompson and Jamie Francis. Maybe with a sheet fort!
Oh, and I've been doing some funny lately, here, too! http://saidnobodyever.blogspot.com/
I met Brock at Portage North Middle School. He was the one exception to the odd rule of good friends living in my neighborhood; he resided down Oakland almost to Parkview on a street I've since forgotten the name of, but still currently sits kind of near the new Valley Family Church. There would eventually be others who didn't live near me, but we'll get to them another time. So Brock and I had a few things in common, such as our love of Transformers, MAD Magazines, and his then-recent fall under the warm, dark blanket of horror movies. But I think the one major thing that brought us together was skiing. Back then I had decided to take up downhill skiing. Our school offered a Ski Club and I decided to join, as did Brock. So, every Wednesday and every-other Friday we'd head to Bittersweet Ski Lodge and learn to schuss our way down the slopes without snapping a leg bones in the process.
Before I go on, I have to yank out the images in my head of just what Brock looked like... or at least what I remember. You see, I've only seen him once since I left Middle School and that was way back in like 1993. Anyway, he was a pale kid with fiery-red hair and freckles. Kinda short -well, shorter than me at the time- and just an all round cool kid. I think he had glasses, as did I (I first started wearing mine during the transition from Elementary to Middle School), if I can remember right. When I saw him years later, he might have had contacts and I seem to recall him having shot upward in height quite a bit, too. Anyway, he was a good friend for quite a number of years and was definitely one of the sadder ones when it came time for me to move away... but we'll get to that later.
Anyway, I remember sitting in the back of Mrs. Bunce's English class creating our own MAD Fold-Ins while she droned on about prepositions and dangling modifiers. It was fun and it killed the time. Oh, but don't get thinking I got bad grades in her class, oh no. If there was any subject I excelled at, it was English. Despite my disdain for organised classrooms and their epic doldrums, I was the king at poetry, book reports, and sentence creation and functions. But making Fold-Ins was just too much fun. Also we made Ninja Stars, we both had really nasty Asthma getting us out of gym class a lot, and we both had an affinity for really cool mechanical pencils. How's that for crummy grammar? HA!
So we skied a lot, we hung out outside of school, we even went camping together with his family once and the only piece I can remember is being on a big pontoon boat fishing and Brock getting something gross in his eye after we'd swum for a while. I don't know why just that piece of memory surfaced, but there you have it. Brock was a good dude, and sometimes I miss him just a bit...
Now we come to Andrew. And sadly, I remember very little about him. Maybe because we didn't hang out as much, or maybe I don't remember if he even went to Portage North with me. Now I know he was in my Scout Troop. but school... hm. My suspicions say he did, since he lived in my neighborhood, but I'll be damned if I can remember him being there at all. But then again, a lot of Middle School is a big blur and it's only now just starting to rearrange itself into cohesive memories. In fact, the more I think about it the more I want to say he was on the swim team with me. Yeah... I was on the swim team. We'll get more into that later, too.
The one thing I do remember is sleeping over at Andrew's house quite a bit during Summer break. I seem to remember him having an Atari 7800 and we'd stay up all hours playing that. I think he had a ton of LEGO, so I think we did a bunch of that, and maybe remote control cars, which eventually led to me getting one a few years later. Either way, I was there a bit. And Andrew taught me one really cool thing when sleeping over. And no, it's not that...
If you're a fan of fans, like I am, then this is really neat: First, take a sheet and put a few couch cushions or big pillows on one side just on the edge. Second, flip the sheet over the cushions so it covers them and all the rest of the sheet is now on the opposite side. Third, lay another series of cushions or something on the inside of the un-cushioned side, effectively making a weird igloo shape. Then, lay one last pillow (or whatever) on one end to seal it up, like a mini tent. Now, with the open end, spread it around a box fan (assuming you have one handy - this works best if you're already inside the tent getting ready to sleep) and drape the sheet over the back just enough so the suction from the fan blowing into the 'tent' keeps it 'sealed'. Turn on the fan: enjoy! If you do it right, it inflates the sheet like a weird balloon and you can sleep right inside! Yeah, it has to at least be on medium so it makes enough air to keep it blown up, but it's fun! Perhaps you should use the bathroom before attempting this, because once inside, it sucks getting out and then rearranging it all over again in the middle of the night.
Well, that was Brock and Andrew in a couple of nut shells. I wish I could remember more, but writing this one has definitely opened up a few previously sealed memory doors, so that's nice. I think next time I'll cover Mike Thompson and Jamie Francis. Maybe with a sheet fort!
Oh, and I've been doing some funny lately, here, too! http://saidnobodyever.blogspot.com/
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